“Both countries see the US as their main rival.”, — write: www.unian.ua
Both countries see the US as their main rival.
China and the Russian Federation intend to expand their influence at the expense of the United States and its allies / photo ua.depositphotos.comSino-Russian cooperation is not only deepening, but has also moved to active aggressive actions. A recent example of the incident was given in a column for The Wall Street Journal by Seth Jones, an authoritative political scientist and defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He recalled that on December 9, Chinese and Russian bombers, as well as other aircraft, flew near Japan and South Korea. This forced the USA and Japan to raise fighter and bombers on the alert.
As the political scientist explained, both China and the Russian Federation see the United States as their main enemy and “seek to expand their power at the expense of the United States and its allies.”
“Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are deep revisionists and want to restore some semblance of the historical Chinese and Russian empires. They have repeatedly emphasized that their partnership “has no borders” and have met in person more than 40 times,” he recalled.
The political scientist cited a number of other examples that illustrate the intensification of Chinese-Russian cooperation.
In his opinion, the arms trade is one of the many areas of intensification of cooperation. The political scientist recalled that since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, China has increased exports of “high priority goods” to Russia. It is a set of 50 dual-purpose goods, including computer chips, machines, radars and sensors, which Russia needs to wage war.
“While Russia does not have the ability to produce many of these goods in sufficient quantities, China’s vast manufacturing sector can produce some of them on a large scale,” he wrote.
In addition, Chinese exports helped Russia triple production of Iskander-M ballistic missiles from 2023 to 2024. Russia used them to attack Ukrainian cities. According to the author, in 2024 China accounted for 70 percent of Russia’s imports of ammonium perchlorate, a necessary fuel component for ballistic missiles. China has also supplied Russia with drone casings, lithium batteries and fiber optic cables. He called it the most important components of fiber optic drones.
“China benefits from this cooperation. Russia is believed to have helped develop China’s new-generation Type 096 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine by providing it with an advanced propulsion system. Leaked documents indicate that Russia has agreed to sell equipment to China that could be used in an invasion of Taiwan, such as light amphibious vehicles, self-propelled anti-tank weapons, airborne armored personnel carriers and special parachute systems for dropping heavy loads from great heights,” he wrote.
China and Russia have also increased the scale and frequency of exercises and training missions. The author recalled that in the period from 2017 to 2024, they conducted about 100 joint military exercises in an expanding territory covering Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the Arctic and Africa. They have also conducted numerous training missions, including eight joint bomber flights between 2019 and 2024. In July 2024, China and Russia conducted a joint patrol off the coast of Alaska involving Xi’an H-6 and Tu-95 Medved long-range bombers, respectively. The two countries have conducted live-fire naval exercises in the South China Sea and frequently conducted joint flights and sailings near Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.
Satellites and spaceBeijing and Moscow are also deepening cooperation in the defense industry. They signed agreements related to the transfer of technologies in space and anti-missile defense, and expanded cooperation between their BeiDou and Glonass satellite navigation systems.
“In the future, Russia can help China develop ground-based and space-based missile attack warning systems that will increase the effectiveness of China’s existing anti-missile defense systems and accelerate the development of new ones,” the political scientist predicted.
Beyond the military sphere, the countries have strengthened economic and technological ties. Trade between China and Russia will reach approximately $245 billion in 2024, up from $190 billion in 2022. China has been Russia’s main trading partner since 2014. In addition, China depends on Russia for oil and gas supplies, which currently account for about 75% of China’s imports.
“There are differences between the two countries, as there are between all friends. Chinese leaders have expressed concern about the warming of Russia’s military relations with North Korea, which is likely to lead to the strengthening of Pyongyang’s missile capabilities. Beijing does not want to help Pyongyang in its nuclear program, while Russia actively supports this program,” the author wrote.
Russia and China – more newsAs UNIAN wrote, analysts also noted China’s involvement in the hybrid war that Russia is already waging in Europe. It is about the cyber component – hacker attacks and disinformation campaigns.
In addition, Russia’s war in Ukraine demonstrated the global dependence on cheap Chinese manufacturing. In particular, China produces up to 80 percent of the components for drones widely used in warfare.
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